India before the Europeans came

To understand what colonialism did to India, you first need to know what India was like before.

India traded with the Greeks and the Romans over two thousand years ago. Indian goods (spices, cotton, ivory, gems, sandalwood, teakwood, wootz steel) were in great demand around the Mediterranean.

Until the 16th century, when European powers began sailing here, India was a lively economic and cultural powerhouse.

Now the number that anchors this whole chapter. Historical estimates, especially by the economist Angus Maddison, suggest India produced at least one-fourth of the world's GDP throughout that period.

GDP means 'gross domestic product': the value of all the goods and services produced in one year. (It is what is made each year, not a pile of money.) So one rupee in every four of the world's production came from India. Pause on that for a moment.

That made India one of the two largest economies in the world, alongside China, whose share was about the same. Together, the two made about half of everything the world produced.

European travellers from the 16th century onwards described India as 'flourishing', noting its manufacturing, its wide variety of farm produce, and its large trading networks inside and outside the country.

Then the chapter turns, in one sentence: "this economic prosperity also made India an attractive target for European colonial ambitions." The wealth is not just background to the story. It is the reason for it.